N° 102. SATURDAY, April 29, 1780.

To the AUTHOR of the MIRROR.

SIR,

OU have already observed how difficult it

You

is to reduce the fcience of manners to general denominations, and have fhewn how liable to mifapplication are fome of the terms which are used in it. To your inftances of men of fashion and good company, you will give me leave to add another, of which, I think," the perverfion is neither lefs common nor lefs dangerous I mean the term applied to a certain fpecies of character, which we diftinguish by the appellation of a man of spirit.

Lord Chesterfield fays fomewhere, that, to fpeak and act with fpirit, is to speak rudely, and act foolishly: and his Lordship's definition is frequently right. At the fame time, SPIRIT may be, and certainly is, often applied to that line of conduct and fentiment that deserves it: A person of virtue, dignity, and prudence, is, with much propriety, denominated a "MAN OF VOL. III. " SPIRIT;"

A

. M

"SPIRIT;" but, by the abuse I complain of, "man of fpirit" is, for the most part, very differently applied.

In the various departments of bufinefs, the term fpirit is frequently applied to unprofitable projects and visionary speculations. Let a man be bold enough to rifk his own fortune, and the fortunes of other people, upon fchemes brilliant but improbable; let him go on, fanguine amidst repeated loffes, and dreaming of wealth till he wakes in bankruptcy; and it is ten to one that, after he fails, the world will give a fort of fame to his folly, and hold him up to future truft and patronage, under the title of an unfortunate man of spirit.

But thefe are not the most glaring inftances of the monstrous perverfion of this character; the airy adventurer, or the magnificent but ruined projector, may both be men of spirit, though it is not fpirit, but want of judgment, and vifionary impetuofity, that have procured them the character. They may, however, poffefs that dignity and independence of mind in which alone true fpirit confifts, and may have been ruined by whim and want of forefight, not want of fpirit. But there is one fet of men on whom the appellation is bestowed, whose conduct, for the most part, is, in every

article,

article, the reverse of dignity or fpirit, and perfectly inconfiftent with it.

The men I mean are thofe, who, by a train of intemperance and profufion, run out their fortunes, and reduce themselves to mifery.Such men are common, and will be fo, while vice, folly, and want of forefight, prevail among mankind. They have been frequently ridiculed and expofed by the ableft pens and it is not the character itself that falls under my obfervation; it is the unaccountable abfurdity of beftowing upon fuch characters the appellation of "men of fpirit;" which they uniformly acquire, whether the fortunes they have fquandered is new, or has been handed down to them through a long line of ancestors.

The mifapplication of the term is fo completely ridiculous, as to be beneath contempt, were it not for the mifchief that I am convinced has been occafioned by it. Youths entering on the ftage of life are catched with the engaging appellation, "a man of spirit:" they become ambitious of acquiring that epithet; and perceiving it to be moft generally beftowed on fuch men as I have defcribed, they look up to them as patterns of life and manners, and begin to ape them at an age which thinks only of enjoyment, and defpifes confequences; nay, if they fhould look forward, and view the "man

"of spirit" reduced, by his own profufion, to the most abject state of servile dependence, it does not mend the matter. In the voice of the world he is "a man of fpirit ftill."-It is faid, that the easy engaging manners of Captain Macheath have induced many young men to go on the highway. I am convinced the character of "a man of spirit" tempts many a young man to enter on a course of intemperance and prodigality, that moft frequently ends in defperate circumstances and a broken conftitution.

This perverfion is the more provoking, that, of all human characters, the intemperate prodigal is, in every feature and every stage, the most diametrically opposite to a man of spirit. -True fpirit is founded on a love and defire of independence, and the two are so blended together, that it is impoffible, even in idea, to separate them. But the intemperate prodigal is the most dependent of all human beings.— He depends on others for amufement and company; and, however fashionable he may be in the beginning, his decline in the article of companions is certain and rapid. In the course of his profufion, he becomes dependent on others for the means of fupporting it; and when his race of prodigality is run, he suffers a miferable dependence for the support even of

that

that wretched life to which it has reduced him. After all, the world calls him a 66 man of fpi"rit," when he is really in a state of fervile indigence, with a broken conftitution, without fpirit, and without the power of exerting it; with the additional reflection of having himself been the cause of his diftreffes.

Nor is it only in the affirmative use of the term that I have to complain of its perversion; the fame injuftice takes place when it is applied in the negative. Calling an intemperate and ruined prodigal a "MAN OF SPIRIT," may proceed fometimes from pity; but, when you hear a man of moderation and virtue, especially, if he happen alfo to be opulent, blamed as "wanting Spirit," the accufation is generally the child of detraction and malignity. I do not apply my obfervation to the avaricious and niggardly, to men whose purses are shut against their friends, and whose doors are barred against every body; fuch men certainly want fpirit, and are, for the most part, defective in every virtue ; but I am afraid that it often happens that a perfon, benevolent to his friends, hofpitable to the deferving, kind to his fervants, and indulgent to his children, is blamed as "wanting fpirit," for no reafon but because he is proof against the abfurdities of fashion and vanity, because he guards against the tricks of the defigning, deM 3 fpifes